The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

Last 5 news

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Vatican City, 30 September 2015 (VIS) –
The catechesis of this Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's
Square was dedicated to the Holy Father's recent apostolic trip in
Cuba and the United States, which originated with his wish to
participate in the Eighth World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia
on 28 September. The visit was extended to include a visit to the
United States, to the headquarters of the United Nations, and to
Cuba, which was the first stage of his itinerary. The Pope took the
opportunity to once again express his gratitude to the president of
Cuba Raul Castro, the president of the United States Barack Obama,
and the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, for the
welcome they reserved to him, and to the bishops and collaborators in
the organisation of the trip for their work.

The Pope recounted that he presented
himself in Cuba, “a land rich in natural beauty, culture and
faith”, as a “Missionary of Mercy”. “God's mercy is greater
than any affliction, any conflict, any ideology; and with this gaze
of mercy I was able to embrace the entire Cuban population, at home
and abroad, looking beyond any division. The symbol of this deep
unity is Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, … Patroness of Cuba, …
Mother of Hope … who guides us on the path of justice, peace,
freedom and reconciliation. … I was able to share with the Cuban
people the hope of fulfilling the prophecy of St. John Paul II: that
Cuba will open up to the world, and the world will open up to Cuba.
No more closure, no more exploitation of the poor, but instead
freedom and dignity. It is the path that draws strength from the
Christian roots of the people, who have suffered greatly”.

After Cuba, the Pope proceeded the
United States. “A symbolic step, a bridge that, thanks be to God,
is being rebuilt”, he commented, adding that “God always wants to
build bridges; we are the ones who build walls. But walls always fall
down”.

He then spoke about the three phases of
his trip to the United States: Washington D.C., New York and
Philadelphia. In Washington D.C. he met not only with the political
authorities, but also the clergy, the poor and the marginalised. He
remarked that the greatest wealth of the country and her people is
her “spiritual and ethical heritage. And so, I wanted to encourage
to continuation of social construction faithful to the United States'
fundamental principle, that all men are created by God, equal and
endowed with inalienable rights, such as life, liberty an the pursuit
of happiness. These values, that may be shared by all, find their
fulfilment in the Gospel, as was clearly shown by the canonisation of
the Franciscan Fr. Junipero Serra, the great evangeliser of
California. St. Junipero shows us the way to joy: going forth and
sharing Christ's love with others. This is the way of Christians, but
also of any person who has known love: not to keep it to oneself but
to share it with others. The United States of America have grown on
this religious and moral base, and on this base they can continue to
be a land of freedom, welcome and cooperation for a more just and
fraternal world”.

Turning to the second phase of the
trip, in New York, the Pope recalled his address to the
representatives of nations at the General Assembly of the United
Nations, in which he renewed the Catholic Church's commitment to
support the institution and “its role in the promotion of
development and peace, especially with regard to the need for joint
and active commitment to care for creation”, and highlighted his
appeal “to stop and prevent violence against ethnic and religious
minorities and against civil populations”. The Holy Father
recounted that he had prayed at Ground Zero for peace and fraternity,
accompanied by representatives of various religions and families of
victims of the 11 September attacks, and celebrated Mass for peace
and justice in Madison Square Garden.

“In both Washington D.C. and New York
I was able to meet various charitable and educational bodies,
emblematic of the enormous service that the Catholic community –
priests, man and women religious, and laypeople – offer in these
fields”.

However, the climax of the trip was the
World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, “where the horizon
extends to all the world through the 'prism' of the family”. He
continued, “the family is the answer to the great challenge of our
world, which is a dual challenge: fragmentation and solidification,
two extremes which co-exist, support each other and together support
the consumerist economic model. The family is the answer as it is the
cell of a society that balances the personal and community
dimensions, and at the same time the model for a sustainable
management of the goods and resources of creation. The family is the
protagonist of an integral ecology, as it is the primary social
subject which contains within itself the two basic principals of
human civilisation on earth: the principles of communion and
fruitfulness. Biblical humanism presents us with this icon: the human
couple, united and fruitful, placed by God in the garden of the world
to cultivate it and protect it”.

The Holy Father concluded by greeting
the archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, noting his great love
for the family made manifest in the organisation of the event. “It
is not by chance, but rather providential that … the witness of the
World Meeting of Families came at this moment from the United States
of America – that is, the country that during the last century
reached the highest level of economic and technological development
without renouncing its religious roots. Now these same roots are
asking to be replanted in the family, to rethink and change the model
of development, for the good of the entire human family”.

Vatican City, 30 September 2015 (VIS) –
After today's catechesis, the Holy Father greeted among others the
Sister Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Poland, who are
currently in Rome, the “heart of the Church”, to give thanks for
the beatification of Klara Ludwika Szczesna, co-founder of this
congregation, in Krakow last Sunday. “By her life, the new Blessed
taught us about giving oneself to God, humble service to neighbours,
life according to the spirit of the Gospel, and sensitivity to the
poor, to those in need and those who have lost their way in life. May
her motto, “All for the Heart of Jesus”, be a challenge for all
of us, so that we may live according to God's will”.

He also blessed a statue of St. Rita of
Cascia, offered by a group of Lebanese faithful to the Italian
archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia, which will be placed at the crossroads
between the saint's birthplace, Roccaporena, and Cascia, where her
relics are held. He invited all during the upcoming Jubillee of Mercy
to “reread her extraordinary human and spiritual experience as a
sign of the power of God's mercy”.

Finally, he recalled that today we
celebrate the memory of St. Jerome, and said, “Dear young people,
may his passion for the Sacred Scripture lead you to fall in love
with the Book of Life; dear sick people, may his austerity bring
meaning to your suffering; dear newlyweds, may his spiritual vigour
strengthen the faith of your new home”.

Vatican City, 30 September 2015 (VIS) –
This morning in the Holy See Press Office a press conference was held
to present the Baragli Project, entitled “The Church and
Communication”. The speakers were Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli,
president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Fr.
Franco Lever, professor emeritus of the Faculty of Social
Communication Science at the Pontifical Salesian University and
consultor of the same Pontifical Council, and Paolo Sparaci,
professor at the same university.

“The PCCS is very pleased to support
the Baragli Project”, affirmed Archbishop Celli. “The primary
function of the PCCS, in accordance with the mandate given to it by
Vatican II, is to promote the importance of communications in the
life of the Church. Communication is not just another activity of the
Church but is at the very essence of its life. … This project is
particularly valuable because it brings together, and makes available
to a wider public, a long tradition of teaching and reflection by the
Church precisely on the centrality of communications”.

“The material themselves are hugely
significant as they show how the Church has, throughout its history,
sought to engage with the changing means and forms of communication
which have shaped culture and human society. This collection enables
us to appreciate how the Church’s manner and means of expressing
its message have been transformed over the years in order to take
account of changes and developments in the dominant forms and
technologies of mass communication. … What one sees is a constant
effort on the part of the Church to ensure that the Good News of the
Gospel is made known to its contemporaries in ways that are
culturally appropriate and that fully realise the potentials of new
models of communications and developing technologies. The publication
of these materials on-line will provide the raw resources which will
enable theologians and communications scholars to deepen their
reflections on how the Church today should fulfil its responsibility
to share its message with all people”.

Fr. Level explained that “'The Church
and Communication' is an 'online digital library' [that] gives access
to excerpts chosen from over 1,100 documents, translated into various
languages, from the first to the twenty-first century; features a
'navigator' which helps to explore available online sources; offers a
platform for reading and personal study; and provides an open
environment for collaboration. The site is geared towards those
interested in the subject, and especially those working in Church
educational and formation centres which do not have large libraries”.

“After some years of preparation, the
beta version in Italian is going live today and can be found at
www.chiesaecomunicazione.com. The purpose is to share what has been
put together so far, to gather feedback and to finalize development
of the definitive version in the coming months”.

At the same time, he added that 'The
Church and Communication' will always be a work in progress with
respect to three areas of ongoing development:

“Expanding the archive: not only
adding future documents of the Magisterium, but widening the range of
documents presented, including those from episcopal conferences
(Latin America, Asia, USA, Africa, Europe), together with
particularly significant contributions from individual bishops
(example, the works of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in the field);
consideration will also be given to documents from the Orthodox
Church and the evangelical churches, especially the World Council of
Churches and the Anglican Communion”;

“Creating a network of collaborators:
an indispensable effort in order to offer translations of documents
and background notes, also to discover new sources and evaluate their
acquisition and inclusion”; and

“Offering new instruments and
methodologies through the IPERNOTE publication platform, which
features and tests new technologies which favour the shared reading
and study of documents among a community of readers”.

He explained that the idea for this
project was inspired by the figure and works of Father Enrico
Baragli, SJ, (1908-2001), “a pioneer of the church in Italy with
his study of the 'means of social communication'. … The origins for
this project go back to 1998 when Father Baragli gave permission to
Fr. Franco Lever to use his writings”, he concluded.

Vatican City, 30 September 2015 (VIS) –
The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Francisco Carlos da Silva of
Ituiutaba, Brazil as bishop of Lins (area 8,261, population 305,000,
Catholics 223,000, priests 58, permanent deacons 11, religious 49),
Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Irineu Danelon, S.D.B., whose resignation
from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age
limit was accepted by the Holy Father.